Crysis Remastered is being patched with support for the new wave of consoles and Digital Foundry managed to get access to Xbox Series X and Series S builds of the upgrade ahead of launch. Owing to the way 'back-compat plus' titles are distributed, we can't check out the PlayStation 5 build until it launches but thankfully, the wait there shouldn't be too long: we were informed today that the patch is out now – and we'll update this article with PS5 impressions as soon as we are able.
Similar to the recently released 2.1 update for the PC version, there are plenty of additions, tweaks and improvements to the game beyond the support for the new consoles. Taking pride of place in the list of upgrades is the inclusion of the Ascension level, a stage so taxing that it was previously removed entirely from all console versions of the game. Also welcome is the inclusion of Nanosuit mode swapping more in line with the PC original (this may have arrived in a prior update, but certainly wasn't present at launch – regardless, it's a nice feature and works well).
However, there is the sense that we're still missing some features found in the 2007 game, removed for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions and which still haven't been restored for Crysis Remastered. The granularity of destruction found in the original still hasn't been patched, volumetrics still aren't on par with the PC original and this effect is completely missing in the resurrected Ascension stage, even it is present on the PC version of Crysis Remastered. Other OG Crysis features are also pared back or missing: vegetation animation still runs at a lower update speed than the rest of the game, while explosions still don't have any impact on foliage.
